Phelps en route to Colorado Springs to tune up for Olympic Trials

Dallas — With renewed motivation but the threat of serious rivalry with American Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps will begin training in Colorado Springs Monday for next month’s Olympic Trials. It is a trip he undertakes with mixed emotions.

“I keep saying I’m looking forward to going to Colorado Springs, but I always can’t stand going there,” said Phelps, who will remain there until the Olympic Trials, June 25-July 2 in Omaha, Neb. “Nothing about the city.”

It’s not the city, it’s the spartan nature of what he needs to accomplish there, training at altitude and eliminating everything that doesn’t help him prepare for the final Olympic Trials of his illustrious career.

“I have had great success being able to come down from altitude, and we have been able to get a lot of work done there,” Phelps said Sunday at the Olympic Media Summit here. “I know there are a lot of things I need to do, and a lot of the things are little small things. It’s going to be just eat, sleep and swim while we’re up there. And it allows me to, not only get ready physically, but also have time to myself to start getting ready mentally. I will be able to start switching into preparing myself for trials, which is probably what I need now.”

Phelps concedes that his motivation waned in the years that followed the Beijing Olympics, where he won eight gold medals, and it was a slow process to get it back.

“After 2008, I just didn’t want to do it,” Phelps said. “I knew deep down inside I wanted to, but I probably just didn’t want to put in the work. There were times where I just wouldn’t come to practice, it didn’t excite me, it wasn’t interesting. I was just like kind of going through the emotions. (In) 2009, that’s how I was, 2010 that’s kind of how I was. In the latter part of 2010, I started showing more interest.

“It really was all about me being able to find the passion again. That was something I just had to find for myself. Once I found it, I enjoyed coming to work out. It wasn’t like pulling my hair, kicking and screaming.”